


crossing a threshold

by temposh



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Gen, Platonic Love, Prince Sehun, knight junmyeon, theyre both a bit awkward!! theyre learning each other its ok
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-06
Updated: 2020-09-06
Packaged: 2021-03-06 22:53:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 998
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26076745
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/temposh/pseuds/temposh
Summary: junmyeon wonders if the prince even needs his protection.sehun has always thought of his royal knight as someone more than a mere bodyguard— and neither are sure if junmyeon feels the same.
Relationships: Kim Junmyeon | Suho & Oh Sehun
Comments: 9
Kudos: 36
Collections: Challenge #6 — Rise of Kingdoms





	crossing a threshold

“You’re up late.”

If his hand wasn’t firmly grasped around his sword’s hilt, Junmyeon was sure that the blade would have flown into the air and fallen right off the tower, plummeting a few dozen feet before the two would hear the clangs of metal hitting pavement. When he turns around, Sehun seems to be holding in a couple of laughs, his chest shaking and lips tight as if they were Pandora's box and his laughter would be the world’s troubles. (Although they were anything but.)

“I thought you went to sleep hours ago?” Junmyeon says, eyeing the nightcap crooked on the prince’s head and the black fluffed up slippers he loved to wear. It shouldn’t be any later than one in the morning, judging by the moon’s position in the sky.

Sehun gives him a shrug. “I couldn’t sleep.” 

“So you climbed all those stairs up here to the roof?”

“I went to find you and the maid nearby said you snuck up here.” He takes note of Junmyeon’s glove and its position around the sword’s hilt, as well as the gambeson he wore with the kingdom’s emblem painted on the area over his heart, “Were you practicing?”

If Junmyeon were to say _‘no_ ,’ there was no doubt that Sehun would laugh at him until he couldn’t breathe any longer. The evidence was all around them. From the glove to the sword to the training dummy he convinced Baekhyun to carry up to the rooftop— Junmyeon had inadvertently claimed the top of the tower as his own training area and Sehun had caught him during his nightly practice.

But if he were to say _‘yes_ ,’ Junmyeon would be addressing the problem they’ve had all along. The most recent attack from the next kingdom left the king in a constant state of stress, soon leading to the realization that he had not given his youngest son a royal knight who could protect him. It was as if the king had plucked Junmyeon from his training like a four-leaf clover taken from its three-leaf siblings- solely to be the guardian to a prince who scarcely went out at all. The first week of the job consisted of watching Sehun make ridiculous forts in the library as he wistfully stared out the window and down at the sparring grounds, where his friends would be training, honing their skills, and leaving him behind in the dust.

If Junmyeon said _‘yes, my prince, I train in my free time,’_ Sehun would say two things.

  1. _“I thought I told you not to call me a prince,”_ after repetitive reassurance that being called _prince_ and _liege_ constantly annoyed him, and he would certainly not like to hear it from the person who will be with him nearly every hour.
  2. _“Do you like this job?”_ and then Junmyeon would be forced to lie and say ‘ _no, of course I like this job,’_ and it would be a white lie at best because he knew that he could be doing so much more for the kingdom than watch Sehun try to blow leaves away with his mind. But at the same time there was no stress, no competition, only him and Sehun and the weird book fortresses his prince loves to build and Junmyeon serves as its sole protector with his little book sword.



He supposes he’s taken too long to answer when Sehun leaves the question alone. Or maybe instead of the power of wind or telekinesis, he could read minds and he could understand Junmyeon’s predicament without him having to utter a single word.

“You should teach me, sometime.” Sehun points to the sword, still at Junmyeon’s side, “Sword fighting, I mean.”

He tilts his head. “Do you _really_ want to learn?”

“No,” he responds. And then he chuckles, and Junmyeon feels his heart drop, “I just thought it’ll give you some time to do what you like while there’s still daylight.” Or, what it truly means to Junmyeon who’s become quite fluent in _Sehunspeak_ , _‘I feel a bit guilty for taking up all your time’._

Junmyeon nods, admittedly a tad too excited about the idea of being able to practice without depending on a couple of candles to light the way, or without being exhausted from the entire day. “We could start tomorrow, then.”

Sehun nods and the silence that follows afterwards isn’t… _unsettling_ to him. Junmyeon itches— he feels compelled to move, to say something, and then he looks up at Sehun before him and sees that he is staring off to god-knows-where, counting the stars of the night in his mind as if it was the only thing he knew how to do.

And it’s… comfortable. It’s the same feeling as the lulls in dialogue they’d have when the prince would find an interesting book and then spend hours on end reading it without uttering a word, or when he’d abruptly fall asleep in Junmyeon’s lap and wake up much later and laughs when he finds out that Junmyeon didn’t dare to move.

It’s only when he recognizes this feeling he breaks it. Junmyeon clears his throat and Sehun’s eyes are instantly on him again and he loses count after the 36th star. “We should get you back to bed,” he finally says, “it’s late, Sehun. Should I get you a glass of water?”

“No, it’s fine, but…” He stares at his slippers and Junmyeon suspects he’s started to count the fibers of the fluff instead, “Could you sleep next to me? Or at least stick around until I fall asleep?” He sounds embarrassed to ask, swaying from one foot to the other. The question was akin to a rickety bridge he wasn’t sure Junmyeon would want to follow him onto, but Sehun wanted to cross the threshold with him no matter the risk. 

Junmyeon doesn’t ask why. They’ve come a long way since the days where he wished he could be anywhere other than by his side.

“Of course, Sehun.”


End file.
